Based on the premise that instruction should be designed from the outset to reduce barriers, Universal Design for Learning (UDL) guidelines provide a set of flexible options and scaffolds to ensure access for all learners. Using the UDL framework, teachers and researchers can systematically adapt effective practices that have been established by…

Thirty-five learning-disabled readers (mean age 10) and 43 controls were compared on a sentence span task and on recall of everyday features, consequential events, and misleading information. Results indicated that subjects were deficient on working memory and naturalistic measures, but their naturalistic memory deficits did not appear to relate…

Sixteen language learning-disabled adolescents were able to provide fewer correct metaphor interpretations than 16 normally achieving adolescents. For both groups, metaphors were easier to interpret by paraphrase selection than by verbal explanation, and perceptual metaphors were easier to interpret than psychological metaphors. (Author/JDD)

This paper examines the complexities of written language in terms of both its mechanical and creative skills. It discusses four approaches to providing assistance to writers with learning disabilities, including rule and skill instruction, substantive facilitation, procedural facilitation, and self-instructional strategy training; and recommends a…

Twenty-one learning-disabled eighth and eleventh graders wrote essays and answered a questionnaire concerning metacognition. Subjects were comparable to normally achieving sixth graders in their essays' interestingness, clarity in communication of goals, word choice, paragraph structure, and metacognition about the writing process. (Author/JDD)

Students (N=120) with learning disabilities in grades 6-9 were assessed on comprehension of silently read materials under conditions of adjunct questioning, oral recitation questioning methods, and middle/end and end-only question placement. Results indicated a significant effect of method and a significant interaction between level and focus of…

Sixty-seven learning-disabled (LD) adolescents attending vocational-technical schools completed a self-management training program. Results showed improvements in the problem-solving and job-related social skills of LD students who received the self-management training program compared to both LD and non-LD students who were not trained.…

The study, involving 61 learning-disabled junior high students, compared the short-term and long-term effectiveness of definition instruction with interactive vocabulary strategies (semantic mapping, semantic feature analysis, and semantic/syntactic feature analysis). Students participating in the interactive strategies demonstrated greater…

The effect of a lecture pausing procedure on performance of 15 learning-disabled and 15 nondisabled college students was evaluated. Findings indicate that 2-minute pauses spaced at logical breaks during videotaped lectures effectively enhanced student performance on immediate free-recall and objective test measures but not on long-term free…

Thirty learning-disabled students in grades five-eight read several passages and attempted to identify and remember main ideas. Students were assigned to one to three conditions: control, monitoring and self-questioning, or mnemonic. The monitoring strategy was most effective for main-idea finding, whereas the mnemonic strategy was most effective…

The use of predictable and unpredictable trial sequences during small-group instruction was evaluated in teaching word and abbreviation identification to 4 students (age 8-10) with learning disabilities. No consistent effects of the trial presentation methods were found across 3 investigations, which involved progressive time-delay procedures and…